Gold Futures Rise to End at $1,660 an Ounce

Gold bounced back from near a four-month low on Friday as investors were discouraged by a weaker euro and stalled U.S. budget talks.

Spot gold stood at $1,655 per ounce, up 0.5 percent after earlier hitting a low of $1,635.24. It touched a four-month low of $1,635.09 on Thursday.

U.S. gold futures settled $14.20 higher at $1,660.10 per ounce after hitting a low around $1,636.

Both spot gold and U.S. futures were on track for a fourth straight weekly drop and have so far shed about 3 percent, the steepest fall since late June.

Gold fell on Thursday after U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner failed to unite his Republican lawmakers behind a bid to extract concessions from President Barack Obama in so-called "fiscal cliff" talks.

"If there is a timely agreement to avert the fiscal cliff, I think gold will gain with risk assets," said VTB Capital analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov.

"I think platinum group metals will outperform gold, as they have much better supply side fundamentals," he added, referring to expectations for increased demand for platinum and palladium as the global economy recovers.

Mitsubishi analyst Matthew Turner said uncertainty over the fiscal cliff was deterring some gold investors.

"Nervousness over the fiscal cliff is possibly keeping some investors on the sidelines, as it is unclear how gold will react to the ongoing fiscal cliff talks," Turner said.

UBS said in a note: "Gold's break of the 200-day moving average around $1,661 on Thursday spooked a lot of market participants and accelerated the sell-off. The technical picture doesn't look great, and neither does sentiment."

Global stock markets weakened on Friday and the euro slipped due to the setback in U.S. budget talks and to evidence of Europe's ongoing economic difficulties, including a drop in German consumer morale, a revision of UK growth figures and a downgrading of Sweden's economic forecasts.

Gold Price Set for Annual Growth

Despite the recent sell-off, gold is up about 5 percent for the year and set for a 12th straight year of growth, driven by rock-bottom interest rates, concerns over euro zone financial stability and diversification into bullion by central banks.

Iraq made its first major move in years to boost gold reserves in recent months, joining central banks from emerging market economies such as Brazil and Russia in diversifying its foreign reserves.

Among other precious metals, silverwas up 0.4 percent at about $30 an ounce. It has underperformed gold this week to fall 7.4 percent and is on track for its biggest monthly drop since May.

Spot platinum was down 0.5 percent at about $1,538 an ounce, while spot palladium was nearly flat at around $677 an ounce. Palladiumhas been the best performer of the precious metals so far this quarter, up 6.2 percent.